Lawyers' London: the Royal Courts of Justice and Inns of Court.

You will hear how this small area of London almost by accident fostered the development of the English Common Law which spread around the world to the United States of America, India, Pakistan, Africa, Australia, and many more countries and was the originator of the world's system of common law.
    

People who changed the world worked, lived, entertained, and were educated in the Inns of Court, including: 

• Seven of the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence.
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan who owned over 200 bespoke (made-to-measure) suits and, as a barrister in London, was said to never wear the same silk tie twice.
• Mahatma Gandhi who had to promise his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol, and women before he could enrol in Inner Temple.
• Sir Francis Drake, a privateer, and the first Englishman to circumnavigate the World and who was then a leading light at the Inns of Court.
• Sir William Blackstone who influenced common and criminal law in the United States and the British Commonwealth and stated that: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” 

The oldest building on the tour is the Temple Church, built in 1162 AD and consecrated in 1185 AD, which King John used as his base in the Magna Carta negotiations 
 
Over eight hundred years these medieval halls and buildings have witnessed many changes and we will look at some of the traditions, including eating dinners in the halls, which have endured to this day. 
  
I look forward to meeting you,
  
Keith